How Taylor Swift won the war to recover his own music thanks to an unexpected ally and a seductive story

Everyone knows this story: a greedy businessman takes advantage of the illusions of an incipient artist. While, on the one hand, he grants him exhibition, recording studies, presence in media and fame; On the other, he drown musical dreams in a contract of contracts, rights play, small letters and pressure to produce tickets. Colossious like Elvis Presley or The Beatles They fell into their networks. But A Nashville composer did not give up: Using that same creativity for which they brought so much for it, it managed to twist the arm to the industry in an arid pulse. Nobody gave a hard one for her, but her bold strategy has made her earn among her fans. Finally, his last battle has expired and now he returns home what he always wants: Your own music.

How Taylor Swift has defeated the record industry is a chapter that will be studied in business schools. Especially, so that Never again someone again use that tool. After getting rid of her old record label, Nashville’s composer saw how her entire musical career passed hand in hand without having any control. In full pandemic he began to meditate on how to recover what was his. And unlike as many artists, he relied on a powerful, although unpredictable ally.

The key to his success was as bold as simple: re -record their old albums and ask their fans to listen to the new versions to boycott the record company. The devaluation has led to the rights of the old albums again. That was how Swift fought a war for his music and beat his old rivals. And incidentally he took a few millions that never come bad.

Nashville heiress

Swift began his career as so many other singing girls from Country: Traveling to Nashville, the capital of the musical genre, with 14 years. His expertise caught the attention of Scott BorchettaHead of the record Big Machine. The entrepreneur, using a classic model of the exploiting cazatalent seal, signed a contract that would have raised blisters in many other sectors. In exchange for giving the singer a great anticipation in metallic, Borchetta would show The property of the original recordings (the ‘masters’) of their first six albums “to perpetuity”.

Why are masters so important? As the name implies, an original recording or master is the reliable interpretation of a song. Who owns it controls all Music exploitation rights. The concession can be very juicy for record records and a very heavy slab for artists, who are tied to these models of “pirate” companies as they are known in the world.

Swift, like so many other artists, signed and continued elaborating his music. Between 2006 and 2017 He published six albums And by the end of the last decade it was one of the most famous singers of the American and growingly external musical panorama. At that time, Swift evaluated his options and made a usual decision in someone from his position: he left Big Machine after expiring his contract in 2018 and He signed with Universalone of the three Majors of the industry.

War drums resonate

In June 2019, the musical producer Scooter Braun bought Big Machine for 300 million dollars And, with the seal, the entire discography of Taylor Swift; Your greatest asset. The acquisition was not only seen by the singer as a classic weaving of the industry, but A dirty play by Braun. Representative of Kayne Westboth Braun and Atlanta rapper had launched a public campaign against the artist years ago to which the Kardashian family joined.

Braun, representative of Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber or David GuettaIt was first and foremost an entrepreneur, who knew the power that musical licenses have. And Swift knew that. “I want my music to last. I want it to appear in movies. I want it to appear in ads. But I just want that if it belongs to me“The artist said in an interview with Billboard in 2019, after learning about the purchase.

Months later the apocalypse arrived for the sector. Pandemia disrupted the plans of the entire music industry: canceled festivals, frozen productions, postponed concerts sine die… The health crisis hit humanity hard and, although music was a powerful antidote against hopelessness, professionals were overwhelmed.

In November 2020, Braun sold Taylor Swift’s discography rights to Shamrock Holdingsan investment fund founded by the Disney family in 1978. Braun was one of the pioneers of a wave of artist rights that has swept the sector, with institutional investors paying hundreds of millions for one of the fashion assets.

Taylor responds with his own version

Swift was outraged. “It is the second time they sell my music without my knowledge,” said the singer in a publication on social networks. At first, considered to be allocated with Shamrockbut discovered – according to his version – that Braun would continue to look for a clause of the sale of rights. “I just can’t get my conscience involved to benefit the interests of Scooter Braun,” said the singer.

Swift took advantage of the pandemic to draw a plan. Your first album with Universal, LOVERit had been a success and for 2020 he released two more albums. At that time, the renewed media exposure and A greater relationship with your followers were the incentives to follow a strategy that everyone considered that it would be a sonorous failure. Swift began to reissue the old songsstarting with Fearlessand add bonus clues in renewed albums called “Taylor’s version”. The objective was for his fanes to listen to his renewed music, which ultimately devalued the price of the old records he did not possess. It was a bold tactic: Use your enemy’s weapons against himself. And also make money with reproductions through an alleged noble cause.

A business strategy that many described as reckless because I needed to have a capricious ally to carry it out; the public itself. What the businessmen and voices of the musical world did not seem to detect was that Swift lived in an era different from that of his past. The relationship with the audience through the networks was in its sweetest moment and the construction of A David’s story against Goliath in which he explicitly asked for the help of his fans was a very cunning and persuasive play.

But something that their detractors either is that technology had changed and, therefore, the way of relating to music. The same gave Listen to the old album that the new In Spotify or Tidal. Both were at A torque of distance clicks.

When the pandemic ended, all the ingredients were ready. In 2023, Swift became the first artist in win the 1,000 million dollars Based only on the composition and interpretation of his music, according to Forbes. A year later, his triumph bent with the most successful tour in history. The Eras Tour raised more than 2,000 million dollarsovercoming the fame of Michael Jackson and Madonna in the 80s.

Meanwhile, he continued to reissue his old titles and consolidate his brand through his own record label. Now, the last piece that was missing from this singer of Country Converted into an entrepreneur has been completed. The Six original albums return to the hands of Taylor Swift After acquiring them to Shamrock. For history there is a seven -year journey and the Personal brand campaign most successful in recent history.

WhatsAppFacebookTwitterLinkedInBeloudBluesky